The Star Wars: The Old Republic Forums have posts from players having trouble cancelling their accounts for the MMORPG yesterday on the eve of when the one-month free accounts activated on the game's first day will be billed for their first paid month of service. Massively notes this thread with a workaround, and that customer service suggests customers with such issues contact them by phone. On the other hand, BioWare announces how not cancelling will earn players a "Founder" title, and the website now offers a video showing new features coming to the game in the future. In a separate bit of news related to the game, this post has word from the game's Live Community Coordinator that they have temporarily disabled posting for all community members on the Star Wars: The Old Republic Forums. No explanation for this is offered.

Verno wrote on Jan 20, 2012, 12:55:Ok Teddy, sounds good. Anyway, so what's left after this? Guild Wars 2 on the horizon but I can't really think of any other big name MMOs.

Speaking of GW2, where's Cutter with his obligatory <insert mmo here> Sucks, GW2 is teh awesome post that he has to make on every single mmo topic that isn't about GW2. You're slipping Cutter, chop chop.

Verno wrote on Jan 20, 2012, 11:15:As for TOR itself, most of my friends who hopped in for the initial zerg rush are already planning on quitting. It's kind of a shame to see these things flame out so quickly, hopefully the licensed content keeps the masses coming back for awhile as this failing will put a lot of people out of work.

That's a pity, but it's the exact opposite of the experience I've had. Every one of my friends that moved to ToR is still having a great time playing through multiple character story-lines and hasn't shown any intention of leaving.

Admitedly I havent played TOR but most of the complaints are aimed at the fact that its basically a single player game with some MMO elements. Something that WoW wasnt at LAUNCH.

So again as someone else has pointed out, you've not played the game at all, yet you think you know what it's like? I have no problem with people disliking a game that they actually tried, this is just sheer stupidity, though.

It featured a huge open world, instances, PvP areas, taverns, and a shitload of other stuff including some end game content "gasp!" AT LAUNCH.

And what part of that does ToR not have? Let's see, it has instances all the way up from level 10 to 50, it has hard mode instances for max level players (WoW didn't have this at launch). It has 2 raids which also have hard modes (WoW had 1 at launch, no hard mode) It has open PvP areas on multiple planets, it has a dedicated PvP zone (which is presently buggy as hell). It has dedicated PvP equipment and rewards (WoW did not have at launch) While the planets are instanced, combine them all and you have roughly the same amount of free roaming area as WoW had initially as well.

Edit: ToR also has multiple PvP battlegrounds (WoW started with exactly 0)

What exactly are you suggesting it's "missing" that would make it a "real" MMO?

Frankly the people who are complaining it's a single player game are likely just idiots with no friends that are expecting the game to make people play with them. There are plenty of group instances, plenty of group quests. If people choose to play alone, it's because they prefer to, or they can't find anyone that wants to play with them.

Every MMO has these kinds of growing pains but it is pretty absurd for this to occur so close to first month cancellation. As another developer noted awhile ago, you can't launch a half baked MMO anymore if you want longevity, people expect polish and stability.

As for TOR itself, most of my friends who hopped in for the initial zerg rush are already planning on quitting. It's kind of a shame to see these things flame out so quickly, hopefully the licensed content keeps the masses coming back for awhile as this failing will put a lot of people out of work.

InBlack wrote on Jan 20, 2012, 08:32:Let me just chrip in a little bit with all the jumping on the "WoW was the WORST LAUNCH EVAAAAAAAH!!!!" bandwagon....

Oh ye all with short memory and even shorter attention spans...hark ye all to the olden days of old for a bit of wisdom....

WoW was a complete MMO at LAUNCH. Sure it had a lot of bugs, broken quests, horrible problems with servers, population caps etc. etc. but it was an MMORPG AT LAUNCH. It featured a huge open world, instances, PvP areas, taverns, and a shitload of other stuff including some end game content "gasp!" AT LAUNCH. Admitedly I havent played TOR but most of the complaints are aimed at the fact that its basically a single player game with some MMO elements. Something that WoW wasnt at LAUNCH.

*disclaimer* I hate WoW with a passion for a number of different reasons, and have only played it for about 2-3 months when it came out. But to stupidly claim that at WoW's launch the game was incomplete is just plain ignorant.

So you haven't played it, but you're comfortable defining what type of MMO it is? ToR has it's issues no doubt about it, but to say it isn't a full MMO is just flat out a joke of a comment.

InBlack wrote on Jan 20, 2012, 08:32:Let me just chrip in a little bit with all the jumping on the "WoW was the WORST LAUNCH EVAAAAAAAH!!!!" bandwagon....

Oh ye all with short memory and even shorter attention spans...hark ye all to the olden days of old for a bit of wisdom....

WoW was a complete MMO at LAUNCH. Sure it had a lot of bugs, broken quests, horrible problems with servers, population caps etc. etc. but it was an MMORPG AT LAUNCH. It featured a huge open world, instances, PvP areas, taverns, and a shitload of other stuff including some end game content "gasp!" AT LAUNCH. Admitedly I havent played TOR but most of the complaints are aimed at the fact that its basically a single player game with some MMO elements. Something that WoW wasnt at LAUNCH.

*disclaimer* I hate WoW with a passion for a number of different reasons, and have only played it for about 2-3 months when it came out. But to stupidly claim that at WoW's launch the game was incomplete is just plain ignorant.

DAoC was an MMO at launch, too.

Also, TOR is NOT a single-player game with MMO elements. It's the opposite. It's a full MMO with a great set of features to keep the game enjoyable *if you are playing alone*.

It is buggy as hell but still very functional and the population on my server seems just fine. If they can clean things up in the next 30-60 days they might be successful. If not, then it will sadly fail.

Let me just chrip in a little bit with all the jumping on the "WoW was the WORST LAUNCH EVAAAAAAAH!!!!" bandwagon....

Oh ye all with short memory and even shorter attention spans...hark ye all to the olden days of old for a bit of wisdom....

WoW was a complete MMO at LAUNCH. Sure it had a lot of bugs, broken quests, horrible problems with servers, population caps etc. etc. but it was an MMORPG AT LAUNCH. It featured a huge open world, instances, PvP areas, taverns, and a shitload of other stuff including some end game content "gasp!" AT LAUNCH. Admitedly I havent played TOR but most of the complaints are aimed at the fact that its basically a single player game with some MMO elements. Something that WoW wasnt at LAUNCH.

*disclaimer* I hate WoW with a passion for a number of different reasons, and have only played it for about 2-3 months when it came out. But to stupidly claim that at WoW's launch the game was incomplete is just plain ignorant.

Doombringer wrote on Jan 19, 2012, 16:10:For one, canceling because of the Slicing or Biochem nerfs is ridiculous. That is the MMO equivalent of a child's rant, like stamping your feet or holding your breath. These professions were fundamentally Too Good and could not exist fairly alongside the other professions. Anyone who got upset about these nerfs would have probably also cancelled WoW when Stormherald's stuns were nerfed... again, because those stuns were simply Too Good. Look beyond the end of your own nose -- things might be great for you as a Biochem expert, but the guy who didn't get Biochem is feeling he made the wrong decision. Balance is key. And often, balancing and rebalancing happens many times throughout an MMO's lifetime.

But the Bioware goof with the cancellation option being unavailable or generally difficult to use? A major gaffe. They definitely have egg on their face for that.

Then again, I remember the Customer Service nightmare that was WoW in those initial months. And the subsequent nightmare, a few years later, with the Blizzard Store and BlizzCon tickets. Sometimes, these companies cannot perfect their backend systems... something breaks somewhere... nor can they always fully prepare for demand.

What's this? Common sense and rationality on the bluesnews forums?!? How dare you. BEGONE!

Drezden wrote on Jan 19, 2012, 17:09:They weren't ready for the sheer numbers of people who were interested in the game, and took no measures to prevent hordes of people from sending servers offline for days at a time. Can't say I've seen one worse.

It actually wasn't that bad. The first day or two they had massive queues and they made new servers on day 3 IIRC. Everyone had a fit because they couldn't play on the server they wanted instead of moving. So the queues continued and everyone who was smart picked a new server.

I haven't tried this MMO; Darkfall ruined the genre for me. However, I might check out the forums to watch the rage build. It is always good for a laugh to see the same people who cycle through every MMO on the forums complaining incessantly. I've found a large portion of the MMO players devote every spare hour to racing to the level cap and alternately bellyaching on any outlet they can find. What is it about these type of games that cause people to get so heated and emotional about? I admit I've fallen victim to it a few times, mostly I've been a fly on the wall.

WoW's launch was abysmal. Aside from the server issues (which really was that they underestimated interest in the game) there were bugs galore. I ended up with a little over a month of credited game time because of all the down time they were experiencing. Anyone who says WoW's launch was fine obviously didn't play in the first 2-3 months.

I actually just had this same discussion with someone in game in SW:TOR, and he asked me to take a screenshot of my account history as proof, and well, I guess I'll share it here too: http://i.imgur.com/HwklX.jpg That is 20 days of credited game time in the game's first three months, and it wasn't just because Blizzard is nice and likes to hand out things for free.

Blizzard did that because they knew they screwed up and owned up to it. Some of those days we got free I had no issues other than minor lag, the consecutive days were for server down times. Ill bet money the decision to gift free days was not made until after release. Thats how Blizzard rolls.

Like you said, Blizzard underestimated the demand on their game. How has SWTOR been responding to the critisism? They are more focused on damage control than honestly improving the game. Locking threads for no reason other than to queltch critisism?!

I also played Wow since its inception. When entering the character log in screen, your character was naked as the demand on the servers just to upload what armour you had was causing the servers to lag.

Say what you want about Wow V's SWTOR, but look at how many starting zones there were in Wow and how many in SWTOR. Look at the range of characters vs how many versions of humans with minor changes? One deserves legendary status and the other will fall away into oblivion.

Breasts wrote on Jan 20, 2012, 02:57:Haha, well teh cool.I suppose your all giving each other reacharounds while posting stuff that should really be on the comedy channel.Congrats on what I'm guessing was another of your sparks of geniarse. Prez is like the leather clad gimp of your gang? Can barely work out that my post was not a reply to yours. Ahh didums. You sure did make him chuckle. There, there. Oh, go on. Give it another banana before you chain it back up in the chest.I didn't read your super humorous post. I just posted my comment on the subject. After reading it, Wow how do you come up with stuff so original like that? It's like your brains have been partially removed.

You guys are well cool.

Cool story, bro.

"During times of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

Haha, well teh cool.I suppose your all giving each other reacharounds while posting stuff that should really be on the comedy channel.Congrats on what I'm guessing was another of your sparks of geniarse. Prez is like the leather clad gimp of your gang? Can barely work out that my post was not a reply to yours. Ahh didums. You sure did make him chuckle. There, there. Oh, go on. Give it another banana before you chain it back up in the chest.I didn't read your super humorous post. I just posted my comment on the subject. After reading it, Wow how do you come up with stuff so original like that? It's like your brains have been partially removed.

Jeklor wrote on Jan 20, 2012, 00:46:BioWare is in the wrong business. They should be making movies, not video games. The intro for SW:TOR alone should get them funding for an animated Star Wars feature film.

If it was a bad-ass video game cinematic, it was probably made by Blur Studios. The intro for TOR was both.

Kosumo wrote on Jan 19, 2012, 22:03:I found the line of sight effect distracting at first but like most things, once I had watch a few minutes, I had got past it. I even started to see abit of pac-man like fun in there!